Our Homes Real Prime Real Estate

The humble Australian home is in everyone's sights these days it seems, but I think there's a real estate blind spot when it comes to the last 20 metres.
 
Residential houses and apartments are the focus of not only fast broadband to encourage a more efficient way of living and working, but the solution - some say - for wasteful energy and water habits.
 
Of course there's a lot of truth in this. Technology is transforming our homes rapidly, providing the platform for telework, networked appliances, programmable rooms and appliances, and much more.
 
And our homes - and how we live in them - can be influenced to handle scarce resources like electricity, gas and water much better.
 
But one of the problems with this whole house - centric debate is that the crucial last 20 metres is being forgotten once ADSL or optic fibre or, yes, even smart grid technology, hits the house wall.
 
This is a real problem and is being lost in all the hoopla over the National Broadband Network or smart meters.
 
To make the most of the dollars being poured into the infrastructure out in the streets we need to make sure it translates smoothly around the house.
 
Nowhere is this summed up quite so well as in the whole residential energy debate.
 
We're rapidly rushing toward a future with alternative sources of energy and better, cheaper ways to distribute it to homes. Houses too will have the ability to communicate with utilities so that the way we use energy - or water for that matter - is no longer dumb and dumber.
 
But to make the most of that brave new world our homes need the capacity to deal with technology easily so that managing energy intelligently is a fait accompli.
 
Which is why the Copper Development Centre and companies like Intel and IBM, and groups like Sydney University, are getting together to sort out just what our homes need to do this well.
 
This means sorting out standards-not the most exciting work I know, but absolutely necessary if we're to really get a smart grid, smart energy solution in place.
 
There often seems to be an implicit assumption out there by some people - and unfortunately by a large section of the public - that we can leave the home technology alone until wireless is good enough to kick in.
 
Unfortunately they'll be waiting a long time as expecting wireless to handle the sorts of speeds and data we'll need is foolhardy, not foolproof.
 
The series of Residential Energy Management Forums we've held this year are continuing next year as well. It's the sort of negotiated, detailed, broad spectrum approach that will win out in the end.
 
Those twenty metres at home may not seem like much, but they're absolutely prime real estate when it comes to technology, energy and the future.
 
Take a look at the information on the REM's at copper.com.au
 
John Fennell
jjfennell@copperdev.com